and the choices I make in my life and I’m okay with that. It’s her opinion, she’s entitled to it. Does it hurt? Yes. Can I allow that to change who I am and what I want to do with my life? No. I don’t want her stripping and not because I look down on strippers. Because that’s not Evie. But do I say anything? No. But when my sister’s boyfriend gets shot and she gets kidnapped, it doesn’t matter what choices I make in living my life, I should know.”
“Give me your number.”
She seemed visibly relieved.
Mag was not, visibly or otherwise, for a variety of reasons.
He got into one of them.
“How did you know who I am and where to find me?”
“Dominique, one of Smithie’s girls, is a friend of mine.”
Well, that explained that.
Mag pulled out his phone.
Sidney opened her massive designer bag and pulled out hers.
They exchanged numbers and then Mag shared a few things of his own.
“This dramatic, or otherwise, just so you know, this kinda thing is not gonna happen to Evie in the future. She’s come to a few realizations about your family and acted on those.”
“Yeah, Mom shouted through the phone at me for a whole half an hour about her part in those realizations and how she blames Evan for Rob leaving her.”
Not a surprise.
Fucked up.
But not a surprise.
“What I’m gettin’ at, Sidney, is Evie is coming to some realizations about your family so maybe coming here and throwing down with me shouldn’t be the only thing you do in regard to looking after your sister and your relationship with her.”
“Mm-hmm,” Elvira hummed.
Sidney looked to her.
“She’s kinda bullheaded,” she told Elvira.
“I hear that. My sister’s a nut and works my nerves regularly. My brother isn’t much better. If they got their shit together, though, I’d still be all in to listen to them,” Elvira replied.
Now it was Sidney humming, “Mm.”
Mag didn’t have much to do for work that day, being on light duty, which meant desk work, and that meant monitoring the screens to keep track of shit they had going on and running other shit on their systems the guys out in the field called in.
Even so, he was done with this visit with Evan’s sister.
“We finished?” he asked.
Her attention returned to him and he saw right away she wasn’t.
Fuck.
“Rob’s a good guy and he’s worried sick about Evie,” she shared. “He also needs to look you over and,” her eyes did a sweep of him, “I’m seeing you’re the kind of guy who would understand where he’s coming from with that. So, it’d be cool you didn’t make him wait too long to do that.”
“I’ll consider it and talk to Evan,” he muttered.
She nodded.
Then her gaze went to Elvira, to Mag, back to Elvira, she looked uncomfortable and Mag braced again even as he said, “Whatever it is, spit it out.”
“Maybe we can have some privacy,” she suggested.
“It’s my office,” Elvira pointed out.
“She’s gonna nag my ass until I share it with her anyway, so you might as well just say it,” Mag told Sidney.
“I don’t nag,” Elvira said to Mag.
He looked to her. “You nag.”
She considered that a beat before she shrugged one shoulder and owned it. “Okay, I nag.”
Mag returned to Sidney and raised his brows.
“Okay then, no offense, I mean, really, this is the case with about ninety percent of the population,” she said fast.
“What’s the case?” Mag asked.
She shared the case and she did it again fast.
“Evan is smarter than you. Like way smarter. Like there’s gonna be times you’ll feel like Forrest Gump kind of smart.”
Mag opened his mouth to say he already knew that, but Sidney kept going.
“Her ex, he couldn’t deal. He’s a programmer. He was a TA in one of her classes. He thought his coder shit didn’t stink. He didn’t become one with his games because he descended into that like people do who get lost in it. He did it because he’s a loser and he’s weak and she made him feel more of both of those because she is who she is, and in the end, he didn’t have the strength to cut her loose so he made it so she’d do it.”
“I’m not him,” Mag pointed out.
“It’s hard on her, to, you know, relate,” Sidney said, and Mag grew tense.
“I’m not findin’ that the case,” he said low.
“I mean,” she threw out a hand, “yeah. She can be normal, and she can be real, but you know, she shouldn’t